"Poetry's meanings come rising up to us from under the surface. They have an insistent truth about them."
Miller Williams

Background
Information

Forthcoming anthologies that will contain my poetry:

Fresh Breath (Poetry Socity of Tennessee, April 2015) and Poems of the Super Moon (Pen Woman Press, April 2015).

My award-winning essays, book reviews, column, travel and humor articles have appeared in newspapers, literary journals, and lately in the National Pen Woman and Deep South Magazines (hardcopy and online) and numerous anthologies.

My poetry has been published in On the Tip of My Tongue, Women's Voices of the 21st Century: Experiences That Shaped Women, Grandmother Earth, Letters in the Snow, The Sound of Muses, Echoes of the Ozarks, Thinking Aloud/Allowed, A Trail of Thoughts, A Time to be Free, and in The Circle of Life Trilogy: In the Playhouse of My Mind Volume I, Scattered Rainbows Volume II, and Life on a Seesaw Volume III bothhardcopy and audio books with South Carolina artist Carol L. Funke.

Birth Place

Catasauqua, PA USA

Accomplishments

I hold degrees in music, English Literature, Elementary Education and Administration from West Chester and Scranton Universities in Pennsylvania.
I served as President of the Spring River Branch of the National League of American Pen Women, and as Arkansas State President of the NLAPW; member of International Womens Writers Guild, Poets Roundtable of Arkansas, National Federation of American Poets, Twin Lakes Writers,Ozark Writers League, National Federation of State Poetry Societies, Poetry Society of Tennessee, and Cherokee Village Writers Guild

Who is Patricia A. Oplinger? She is a woman who encourages the poet lying deep within each person. She seeks to help others develop healthy sef-expression and an awareness of the world through fresh eyes.
Retirement allowed her to develop as a freelance writer and to establish The Storybook Project 19 years ago, a literacy program which is active, inside two Arkansas state prisons that keep families connected through reading.
Collaborator Carol L. Funke and Pat have read and shown artwork from the Circle of Life Trilogy at venues ranging from a joint meeting of the St. Louis Writers' Guild and the St. Louis Arts Alliance to regional libraries of their residential states.
From 2001 to 2009 artist Carol L. Funke and Pat premiered the tabletop hardcopy books of their trilogy at WORDS, an independent bookstore.
Audio books of the Circle of Life trilogy Volumes I, II, and III were released in 2010, 2011, and 2012.
Pat is a contributing author of poetry and prose to collections and anthologies such as Women's Voices of the 21st Century: Experiences That Shape Women, "Only Day"; Grandmother Earth, "Sunset Through the Trees" and "Marbelized"; and Echoes of the Ozarks,an anthology dedicated to people and places in the Ozarks. "Another Kind of Needy" is the story of how she and Don Heern established The Storybook Project, a prison ministry-literacy program, in the Newport State Correctional Facility, at Newport, Arkansas 19 years ago.

Funke Originals
My collaborator, Carol L. Funke, is an established artist whose works have appeared in galleries from coast to coast. Her talent and presence in my life is a gift that has changed my path. In reacting to each other's work, sometimes the words come first, sometimes the visual images do.

Circle of Life Trilogy
Information on both collaborators, artist Carol L. Funke and poet Patricia A. Oplinger regarding In the Playhouse of My Mind Volume I, Scattered Rainbows Volume II, and Life on a Seesaw Volume III of our Circle of Life Trilogy is available as well as order forms for the hardcover trilogy of books and the audio books on CDs.

Circle of Life Trilogy books and CDs
Information on collaborators artist Carol L. Funke and poet Patricia A. Oplinger is available as well as forms for ordering their Circle of Life Trilogy of books and the accompanying audio books.